“FUBAR’d,” by J.C. Todd (Poetry ’90)

Poetry alum J.C. Todd was recently featured in Mezzo Cammin. Read an excerpt of “FUBAR’d” below:

FUBAR’d

for Cathy

Piece of shit war. Her mourning’s a blight zone,
her bristle and snarl an off-limits compound
that no one goes near. She will not rebound,
she’s so FUBAR’d. She’d gotten the patient home-
free to Ramstein. Deplaned. Passed from her own
command, transfer signed. Stable. The on-ground
med crew bungled the airway—a profound
inanity that screwed the vitals. Full-blown
systems failure. Not resuscitated,
although they worked on him, a non-com who
should have gone home to the girl he dated
or married, or Mom and Dad, where he’d undo
their fears. But fantasy’s Oprah-rated.
Now this one’s the soldier who didn’t come through.

This one’s the airman who’s got to come through
the flight alive, cocooned in twilight sleep,
a patient pumped with meds designed to keep
the range of organ function within a value
defined as viable for transport. True,
she’s been trained to follow orders that overleap
good medicine, good sense, but not to sweep
aside her oath to heal. On-ground, she knew
that prepping him was packaging a lie—
one less war zone body count. A fake out.
She’ll land him live although the indices
have turned against survival. Verify
his status. Joke, this mercy flight’s a take-out
delivery. He’s cold to the elbows and knees.

Read the rest of this poem here: https://www.mezzocammin.com/iambic.php?vol=2020&iss=2&cat=poetry&page=todd